Clapton Pond Blog

Chatsworth Market & Other Localist Initiatives

Today I finally made a visit to the reviving Chatsworth Market where I found out what halloumi is, bought a lovely bit of fruitcake and scoffed a tasty portion of sate wrapped in roti from Chock's Wok. I also met Diane Cunningham of the traders and residents association who expressed confidence about the market's future. The number of stallholders has risen to thirty from a pre-Christmas sixteen. Almost all of them are local people, trying their hand at market trading for the first time. 

The market's Facebook page tells us that it is scheduled to continue running fortnightly through June and July and that the long-term goal is to go weekly. With the Sunday Morning Market at Rushmore school and Hackney Homemade behind the Book Box also doing business just a spit away, there seems every chance that Chatsworth Road could develop into a thriving Sunday market centre.

The Future For That Famous "Former Toilet"

This is what will rise from the ruin of the late public convenience, assuming the Council's planning committee gives the go-ahead next month. The architect is Claridge (I trust they don't mind my reproducing their image) and the development of the site would be a joint enterprise involving Ali Demirbag of IDP International Properties Ltd and Temel Alp, who owns Fairdeal Foods and bought the site a few years ago. You can see details of Mr Alp's application via here, including this report from Claridge which provides a lot of useful insights into the thinking behind the design.

The Killer Crossing: No More?

The last time I posted about The Killer Crossing was, incredibly, three years ago almost to the day. The big news then was that nothing could be done to improve it until at least April 2009. Before that, I'd rashly predicted that "change is at last on its way." Hmm. Well, now it really, really does look as though it really, really is. Transport for London even have a diagram on their website. This proves that neither I nor my camera have been imagining things. You'll see from the diagram that the works are scheduled to be completed at the end of March. Oh, happy day.      

Tesco Trouble

 With the next edition of the Hackney Gazette expected to report on local opposition to a Tesco Express taking up residence at 144-146 Lower Clapton Road, this might be a good moment to fortify emotion with cold-eyed realism. Like all the fellow residents in the photograph above (taken yesterday), I love the friendliness and individuality of Palm 2 and many of our other local shops. The prospect of any of them being driven out of the business thanks to a branch of the ravenous Tesco giant having the mass buying power to undercut them on price is distressing.

Ruff Sleeping

A reader writes:

is anyone else suffering from a lack of their usually nightly sleep because of the hounds kept as guard dogs at the car yard on Powell Road, E5 It is driving me insane I have even been considering the steak/sleeping pills interface. But the dogs are too cute. And I want to do things through the right channels.

Any advice?

Planting Hackney Wick

Oh look! A new local blog!

Hackney: Top For Parks

From Londra Gazete

"Hackney's Parks Service has achieved seven prestigious Green Flag awards and a Green Heritage award in this year's national awards for parks and green spaces. The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by the Civic Trust, is the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales. Of the 26 London boroughs given Green Flag Awards this year, only eight, including Hackney, have seven or more. This achievement is a significant improvement on last year when Hackney received four Green Flags, up from two in 2006."

Yippee!

Understatement Corner

Stoke Newington Kris is not a Nando's fan.

Clapton Park Estate

From last Saturday's Guardian:

"Five years ago, Clapton Park in Hackney, east London, was much like many other urban estates: not especially pretty, but then not particularly ugly either. Just another unremarkable collection of mainly low-rise blocks interspersed with 200 bits of largely uninspiring green 'space'; mostly mown grass with the odd tree and shrub here and there."

In case you missed it (like me).

Poop Scoop Promotion

This latest example of my famously inadequate photography shows - if you click on it and squint - a Safer Neighbourhoods Environmental Enforcement and Pollution Control exercise taking place yesterday on the Downs. This may sound terrifying, but at the heart of it was a poop scoop promotion. The park ranger is clutching a Fido Facts Pack - a bunch of information for dog-owning park users produced by the Council's Neighbourhoods and Regeneration directorate. Each contained a leaflet from the Dogs Trust called Being A Good Dog Owner, a pamphlet from Encams called Dog Fouling and The Law and a green, 100% biodegradable plastic bag for scooping your dog's poop into. Now, I'm not a dog owner so it could be argued that my accepting a Fido Fact Pack from the park ranger represents a waste of tax-payers' money. On the other hand, I've communicated information about its contents to a potential worldwide audience of millions. My conscience is clear. What a relief.